"To kill the indians...". Alterity and empire in the theatrical play Los comanches of New Mexico

Abstract

This essay proposes that main discursive features of the representation of the "indio" are fully developed by the times of borbonic reorganization in the XVIII century. The play Los comanches (Anonymous [1780] 2004) is a symptom of the propagation of a discourse that justifies extermination of native ethnic groups. The discursive structure of this play presents an ethnocentric image of the "indio" as a body lacking of "faith", therefore of soul. This representation of the "indio" remains until the XIX century where is replaced and included in the representation of the "poor".